World War II in Simple German: Learn German the Fun Way with Topics that Matter: Topics that Matter: German Edition, #1

Von Olly Richards

Improve your German and expand your vocabulary with topics that matter.

When it comes to mastering a foreign language, reading around your interests makes all the difference. But finding books designed for language learners can be hard! This book fixes that. For the first time, you'll learn to improve your German while reading about the history of World War II.

"I love Olly's work - and you will too!" -  Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers

Told through short, manageable chapters in intermediate German, you'll become confident in the words, phrases and expressions you need to speak about the topics you care about.

World War II in Simple German gives you all that you can wish for from a real history book without the tough academic terminology which may be difficult for intermediate learners. The story does not focus only on the main events of the conflict, but rather it includes the less-known aspects of WWII from the famous battlefields to the social aspects of life between 1939 to 1946 to the international German-speaking stage.

Over 40 engaging and informative chapters, you'll immerse yourself in the history of WWII and master German in the process.

Here's what you'll get:

• 47 chapters in simple German, so you can learn about WWII without the struggle of reading an academic text.
• Helpful key facts at the beginning of each chapter to help guide you through.
• Chapters that are carefully written to be accessible for intermediate learners (CEFR B1-B2), so you can read purposively, at your level.
• Word lists with English definitions in every chapter, so you can get instant translations of any difficult words.  This means you can focus on enjoying the history rather than wasting time in a dictionary (eBook & paperback only).
• Fun-facts at the end of each chapter, so that you can dazzle your friends with interesting facts about the WWII period.

The chapters are written in neutral German, so you'll have plenty to learn, whether you're learning the German of Germany, Austria, or Switzerland.

Created by Olly Richards, language teacher and author, World War II in Simple German gives you an experience in real German that you won't find anywhere else. You'll be better prepared for using German in the real world, speak with more confidence, and take a giant leap towards fluency in German!

"[Olly's] techniques have made a world of difference. I was able to learn more in 9 months with his techniques than I did in the 6+ years in school" - Courtney Baird, successful language learner

• Sprache: Deutsch
• Herausgeber: StoryLearning Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 11. Mai 2023
• ISBN: 9798223171713

Olly Richards

Olly Richards is a foreign language expert and teacher who speaks eight languages and has authored over 20 books. He has appeared in international press including the BBC, Independent, El País, and Gulf News. He has also featured in a BBC documentary and authored language courses for the Open University. Olly started learning his first foreign language at the age of 19, when he bought a one-way ticket to Paris. With no exposure to languages growing up, and no natural talent for languages, Olly had to figure out how to learn French from scratch. Twenty years later, Olly has studied languages from around the world and is considered an expert in the field. Through his books and website, I Will Teach You A Language, Olly is known for teaching languages through the power of story – including the book you are holding in your hands right now! You can find out more about Olly, including a library of free training, at his website.  

Buchvorschau

INTRODUCTION

I have a golden rule when it comes to improving your level and becoming fluent in a foreign language: Read around your interests. When you spend your time reading foreign language content on a topic you’re interested in, a number of magical things happen. Firstly, you learn vocabulary that is relevant to your interests, so you can talk about topics that you find meaningful. Secondly, you find learning more enjoyable, which motivates you to keep learning and studying. Thirdly, you develop the habit of spending time in the target language, which is the ultimate secret to success with a language. Do all of this, and do it regularly, and you are on a sure path to fluency.

But there is a problem. Finding learner-friendly resources on interesting topics can be hard. In fact, as soon as you depart from your textbooks, the only way to find material that you find interesting is to make the leap to native-level material. Needless to say, native-level material, such as books and podcasts, is usually far too hard to understand or learn from. This can actually work against you, leaving you frustrated and demotivated at not being able to understand the material.

In my work as a language educator, I have run up against this obstacle for years. I invoke my golden rule: Spend more time immersed in your target language!, but when students ask me where to find interesting material at a suitable level, I have no answer. That is why I write my books, and why I created this series on non-fiction. By creating learner-friendly material on interesting and important topics, I hope to make it possible to learn your target language faster, more effectively, and more enjoyably, while learning about things that matter to you. Finally, my golden rule has become possible to follow!

World War II

If there is one historical event that defines our lives to this day and has sparked the imagination of thousands of works of fiction and academic studies, it is World War II. The impact of the events that unfolded between 1939 and 1945 is undeniable, and many devote their lives to studying this period and continue to discuss its historical, social, geographical, and political implications.

So, what better way to improve your German than to learn about World War II?

World War II in Simple German is the ideal companion to help those with an interest in history improve their German. Not only will you learn the vocabulary you need to talk about history in German but you will also deepen your knowledge about the events of World War II, their social impact, and some of the less-known players of the period (both at home and on the battlefield). Written in a simple style that makes the history easier to understand, you will nonetheless have the satisfaction of reading through a genuine historical text in your target language.

Informative, comprehensive, apolitical, and reviewed at PhD level for historical accuracy, this book is the perfect way to improve your German while learning about one of the most fascinating periods of modern history.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

There are many possible ways to use a resource such as this, which is written entirely in German. In this section, I would like to offer my suggestions for using this book effectively, based on my experience with thousands of students and their struggles.

There are two main ways to work with content in a foreign language:

1. Intensively

2. Extensively

Intensive learning is when you examine the material in great detail, seeking to understand all the content – the meaning of vocabulary, the use of grammar, the pronunciation of difficult words, etc. You will typically spend much longer with each section and, therefore, cover less material overall. Traditional classroom learning generally involves intensive learning.

Extensive learning is the opposite of intensive. To learn extensively is to treat the material for what it is – not as the object of language study, but rather as content to be enjoyed and appreciated. To read a book for pleasure is an example of extensive reading. As such, the aim is not to stop and study the language that you find, but rather to read (and complete) the book.

There are pros and cons to both modes of study and, indeed, you may use a combination of both in your approach. However, the default mode for most people is to study intensively. This is because there is the inevitable temptation to investigate anything you do not understand in the pursuit of progress and hope to eliminate all mistakes. Traditional language education trains us to do this. Similarly, it is not obvious to many readers how extensive study can be effective. The uncertainty and ambiguity can be uncomfortable: There’s so much I don’t understand!

In my experience, people have a tendency to drastically overestimate what they can learn from intensive study and drastically underestimate what they can gain from extensive study. My observations are as follows:

Intensive learning: Although it is intuitive to try to learn something you don’t understand, such as a new word, there is no guarantee you will actually manage to learn it! Indeed, you will be familiar with the feeling of trying to learn a new word, only to forget it shortly afterwards! Studying intensively is also time-consuming, meaning you can’t cover as much material.

Extensive learning: By contrast, when you study extensively, you cover huge amounts of material and give yourself exposure to much more content in the language than you otherwise would. In my view, this is the primary benefit of extensive learning. Given the immense size of the task of learning a foreign language, extensive learning is the only way to give yourself the exposure to the language that you need in order to stand a chance of acquiring it. You simply can’t learn everything you need in the classroom!

When put like this, extensive learning may sound quite compelling! However, there is an obvious objection: "But how do I learn when I’m not looking up or memorising things?" This is an understandable doubt if you are used to a traditional approach to language study. However, the truth is that you can learn an extraordinary amount passively as you read and listen to the language, but only if you give yourself the opportunity to do so! Remember, you learned your mother tongue passively. There is no reason you shouldn’t do the same with a second language!

Here are some of the characteristics of studying languages extensively:

Aim for completion: When you read material in a foreign language, your first job is to make your way through from beginning to end. Read to the end of the chapter or listen to the entire audio without worrying about things you don’t understand. Set your sights on the finish line and don’t get distracted. This is a vital behaviour to foster because it trains you to enjoy the material before you start to get lost in the details. This is how you read or listen to things in your native language, so it’s the perfect thing to aim for!

Read for gist: The most effective way to make headway through a piece of content in another language is to ask yourself: Can I follow the gist of what’s going on? You don’t need to understand every word, just the main ideas. If you can, that’s enough! You’re set! You can understand and enjoy a great amount with gist alone, so carry on through the material and enjoy the feeling of making progress! If the material is so hard that you struggle to understand even the gist, then my advice for you would be to consider easier material.

Don’t look up words: As tempting as it is to look up new words, doing so robs you of time that you could spend reading the material. In the extreme, you can spend so long looking up words that you never finish what you’re reading. If you come across a word you don’t understand… Don’t worry! Keep calm and carry on. Focus on the goal of reaching the end of the chapter. You’ll probably see that difficult word again soon, and you might guess the meaning in the meantime!

Don’t analyse grammar: Similarly to new words, if you stop to study verb tenses or verb conjugations as you go, you’ll never make any headway with the material. Try to notice the grammar that’s being used (make a mental note) and carry on. Have you spotted some unfamiliar grammar? No problem. It can wait. Unfamiliar grammar rarely prevents you from understanding the gist of a passage, but can completely derail your reading if you insist on looking up and studying every grammar point you encounter. After a while, you’ll be surprised by how this difficult grammar starts to become normal!

You don’t understand? Don’t worry! The feeling you often have when you are engaged in extensive learning is: I don’t understand. You may find an entire paragraph that you don’t understand or that you find confusing. So, what’s the best response? Spend the next hour trying to decode that difficult paragraph? Or continue reading regardless? (Hint: It’s the latter!) When you read in your mother tongue, you will often skip entire paragraphs you find boring, so there’s no need to feel guilty about doing the same when reading German. Skipping difficult passages of text may feel like cheating, but it can, in fact, be a mature approach to reading that allows you to make progress through the material and, ultimately, learn more.

If you follow this mindset when you read German, you will be training yourself to be a strong, independent German learner who doesn’t have to rely on a teacher or rule book to make progress and enjoy learning. As you will have noticed, this approach draws on the fact that your brain can learn many things naturally, without conscious study. This is something that we appear to have forgotten with the formalisation of the education system. But, speak to any accomplished language learner and they will confirm that their proficiency in languages comes not from their ability to memorise grammar rules, but from the time they spend reading, listening to, and speaking the language, enjoying the process, and integrating it into their lives.

So, I encourage you to embrace extensive learning, and trust in your natural abilities to learn languages, starting with… The contents of this book!

THE FIVE-STEP READING PROCESS

Here is my suggested five-step process for making the most of each chapter in this book:

Read the short key points summarizing the chapter. This is important, as it sets the context for the whole chapter, helping you understand what you are about to read. Take note of the main points discussed in each sub-section and if you need to remember what you should be focusing on, go back to the key points section.

Read the short chapter all the way through without stopping. Your aim is simply to reach the end of the section, so do not stop to look up words and do not worry if there are things you do not understand. Simply try to follow the gist of the chapter.

Go back and read the same sub-section a second time. If you like, you can read in more detail than before, but otherwise simply read it through one more time, using the vocabulary list to check unknown words and phrases where necessary.

By this point, you should be able to follow the gist of the chapter. You might like to continue to read the same section a few more times until you feel confident. Ask yourself: Did I learn anything new about World War II? Were any facts surprising?

Move on! There is no need to understand every word in each paragraph, and the greatest value from the book comes from reading it through to completion! Move on to the next section and do your best to enjoy the content at your own pace.

At every stage of the process, there will inevitably be parts you find difficult. Instead of worrying about the things you don’t understand, try to focus instead on everything that you do understand, and congratulate yourself for the hard work you are putting into improving your German.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

In this text, the reader will find an interesting re-telling of the events of World War II (WWII). This book covers not only the well-known events and battles you may have learnt about in school but also some of the less-known but just as important aspects of the most momentous armed conflict in human history. The various characters involved, the impact of the war on Latin America, and the consequences of the conflict for humanity as a whole are described throughout the chapters in a way that is both simple and thought-provoking. Each chapter takes into consideration new and original ways of looking at WWII, placing emphasis on different events and processes that occurred simultaneously throughout the war, both on the battlefield and at home, and have shaped modern history as we know it. To this day, many historians continue to investigate and discuss the importance of these events and changes, applying different ideologies and relying on contrasting academic sources too numerous to include in any single book.

The second World War is one of the most studied topics in modern history – both for the events that took place during the conflict and for the consequences ensuing from it. In particular, the rise of the great political superpowers of the time deepened the sense of tension between right- and left-wing ideologies that had been evident since the German Revolution onwards.

World War I and the Great